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Sports Version of ‘Room 101′

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In George Orwell’s 1984, there’s a “Room 101″, where you essentially see your worst nightmare. Room 101 is filled with all the unnecessary things in our lives.

“You asked me once, what was in Room 101. I told you that you knew the answer already. Everyone knows it. The thing that is in Room 101 is the worst thing in the world.” — O’Brien, 1984

At its simplest, they’re pet peeves. They’re things we can do without, things that do more harm than good. We decided to discuss the things we would put in a sports version of Room 101 – anything sports related we’d like to get rid of or change.

In this Room 101, let’s discuss the final minutes of NBA Games, and sports injuries in general.

Final minutes of games - One of the things that perpetually frustrates me in the sports world comes from the league I enjoy most, the NBA. The problem rears its head throughout games, but is most pronounced in the last two minutes of games in which a few possessions separate the teams. Anyone who watches NBA basketball knows that when there is two minutes remaining on the game clock, you actually have to set aside twenty minutes or more of
actual time to watch the contest to its finality. The problem: too much fouling and timeout calling. It’s painful to watch, and can hardly be considered basketball in my opinion. However, I think the problem can be rectified with a few simple rule changes.

These rule changes will be implemented only for the last few minutes of the fourth quarter, and would presumably need a dead ball situation to take effect. Since there is already a TV timeout in every NBA game at the first dead ball after the three minute mark in the 4th quarter, I feel that this would be the opportune time to impose said rules alterations. The first change: no matter how many timeouts either team has used up to the point of the TV timeout, the slate will be wiped clean and one full and one 20 second timeout will be allotted to either team.

This will solve the infuriating problem of a timeout being called on every change of possession, as we see so often down the stretch of NBA games. Second rule change: intentional, non-shooting fouls that incur free throws (second foul in last two minutes and after, or penalty situation before the last two minutes), will result in THREE foul shots, rather than two. This will make teams more hesitant to foul intentionally, but will still leave the door slightly ajar to using the strategy. I think both of these rule changes are fair because they will make for a better, more fluid product for the fans (the fans who, let’s not forget, are the customers of the league and should be appeased), while still leaving the teams with late-game strategic options, just not as many or as favorable of options as before.

Whenever I watch NBA games with my dad and teams start fouling and calling timeouts down the stretch, he leaves the room cursing about how stupid the NBA is. If these rule changes were implemented, maybe he’d stay to watch the game through. And it would only take five minutes of his time instead of twenty.

Sports Injuries - Imagine Derrick Rose never having to worry about their his knee giving out again. Imagine if Larry Johnson never had his back issues. Imagine if Patrick Ewing’s knees didn’t deteriorate every season of his career.

Sports injuries are absolutely, and I mean, absolutely, unnecessary. Of course, one could say that any sort of disease, illness, or injury is unnecessary, that it’s not confined to the world of sports.

What happens in life is often out of our control, but in sports, something most of turn to for a distraction from the realities of life, let’s please get rid of all injuries. While Bacardi and Archie discussed aspects of sports that can actually be changed, there is very little hope for my hope of eradicating all sports injuries.

Over the past few decades, we’ve seen a huge improvement in sports equipment to minimize the risk of injuries, from better technology in football helmets, to better supplements for athletes to stay stronger. There is no doubt guys like Dwight Howard and Andrew Bynum have access to better medical care than guys like Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell did. As someone who had to stop playing sports in any competitive fashion after nearly a dozen dislocated shoulders and multiple surgeries, I tip my hat to the sports medical field that has improved tenfold.

With that said, ACLs, dislocated shoulders, broken ankles, back injuries, concussions … package it all together and shove it into Room 101. They’ll be around forever unfortunately, making them the perfect candidate for the room.

There is no one person who likes to see an up-and-coming ball player go up for a highlight play only to come down to a lost career.

Rohit Ghosh is a Senior Writer for www.Rantsports.com. Follow him on Twitter @RohitGhosh. “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.

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